Universities Embrace Digital Transformation To Stay Competitive
Today’s students have different expectations of their higher education institutions than those in the past, and it’s up to universities to take these demands to heart. According to Nick Gyani, North America higher education lead at Canva, providing tools that allow students to foster creativity and collaboration is going to be key in meeting these needs.
“Talking to students across campuses, they really gravitate toward tools that allow them to be creative and express themselves digitally in a very simple way, while also being able to have input from other students or their professors,” Gyani said. “I think just homing in and doubling down on that creativity and collaboration piece is going to be the most important thing for universities to embrace.”
Gyani also said students are looking for tools that will help them in the workforce, so providing these tools in college will help them be better prepared after graduation
Bruce Canal, executive lead for education at Genetec, said today’s students want a simple approach to device security. Mobile credentials can meet this need, putting access control, payment methods and more all inside the mobile devices students are already carrying with them.
“Less is more. It makes the students’ lives a lot easier, and it'll make them more productive in the long run,” Canal said.
Inside the classroom, students entering a university setting will likely be looking for the same active, personalized learning experiences they experienced in their K–12 environments, according to Rosalie Hamernik, program manager at Promethean.
“They’re used to being able to learn the way they want, not necessarily in a lecture-based format,” Hamernik said. “They’re used to interacting with content. They’re used to incorporating these active learning concepts into how they’re internalizing a lot of their material. Whether you have a classroom of 25 or a lecture hall of 250, there are ways that technology can help you personalize that experience.”
READ MORE: Innovative classroom design can boost student engagement.
Outside the classroom, students are looking for a sense of community, Hamernik said, and tools such as Promethean interactive panels can help them find it. Students can use them to collaborate with their peers who are in different locations, and they can help hybrid students feel more connected to their in-person classmates.
“I think leveraging that technology for not only interactive learning but interactive collaborating and brainstorming is really important to students, because they’re really demanding this type of technology,” she said. “We can no longer push the round peg into the square hole. We have to go along with what the students are demanding and be able to grow and adapt with them.”
A Unified Digital Infrastructure Can Streamline Operations
As institutions grow in size and complexity, standardizing digital initiatives can help them operate more efficiently. Keeping information about student housing, security, academics, facilities, parking and more in a single platform can help universities make better decisions, reduce costs and limit liability, according to Canal.
“What is most important is that you have a way to bring in all of these systems thorough an open architecture system, so you can bring it to one unified platform,” he said. “You’ll have quicker access to all of the data that you need, whether it’s about how much money a student is spending on their account, what doors are left open in a building or what classroom lights are left on.”
For Hamernik, simplicity is the best way to make life easier for students, faculty and the IT department. This seamless, unified approach can be achieved by standardizing equipment across classrooms, libraries, meeting rooms and anywhere else on campus that collaboration tools are used. It’s important to create an ecosystem that works together nicely so people know what to expect.
“If every single classroom that a professor walks into is set up differently, that becomes not only a training issue and a maintenance issue but a credibility issue with the professor,” she said. “They start to get extremely frustrated, and that’s when you see faculty members push back on technology advances.”
DISCOVER: Standardizing technology can help create a seamless learning environment.
On the software side, Gyani said, evaluating what an institution is using and determining how it can be more efficient will be key in periods of growth.
“Maybe it’s doing a deep-dive evaluation into what tools are actually being used and working with your vendors to make sure there’s transparency around the usage,” he said. “Efficiency also comes with replacing tools and finding ways to do something with one tool instead of five. There’s a whole variety of ways to unify infrastructure, and the impact can be huge.”
Technology Can Support Safety, Security and Well-Being on Campus
Having a sense of security can impact the student experience, but defining modern security can go beyond the traditional, according to Canal. Security used to mean cameras, but sensors have become the new norm with their ability to monitor areas of campus, detect weapons, read license plates, monitor concession lines at football games and more.
“There’s a lot more to it than just security,” Canal said. “It’s operations, and they all run together. It’s more than just a security camera or access control device on the door. Genetec has a total solution.”
WATCH NOW: How Bowie State University modernized its physical security system.
A sense of well-being goes beyond the physical, Hamernik said.
“If students are not being set up for success by the technology that’s in the classroom and the software that’s available to them to learn and create and brainstorm in ways that they’re comfortable with, they are going to shut down,” she said. “They’re not going to feel secure and happy in their environment, which will ultimately then lead to them maybe leaving college. These students have pushed us into where we are today because they’ve grown up with this technology. So, for them to feel part of the campus and mentally well, we don’t want to put them in a space that they’re not accustomed to.”
To watch the full recording of the “Transforming the Campus Experience: Solutions That Foster Student Success in Higher Education” webinar and explore other free resources, visit the CDW Education webinar landing page.
